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TrevorR

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    Plato

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by TrevorR

    [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1445088901' post='2888722']
    I am so out of my depth here that it's not even funny, but I am genuinely enjoying trying to follow all this.
    [/quote]

    Those who have studied these things properly will cringe at this as is is very much a paraphrase rather than an academic treatise (it annoys the heck out of my nephew who studied music at Goldsmiths). But for the average muso you could do worse than the explanation of Pythagorean theory and tempering in scales in Howard Goodall's Big Bangs. A nicely simplified and populist explanation...

    http://youtu.be/41g2fSYZ4Sc

    Apologies to those who have looked at this properly...

    What gear do you REALLY need?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1445098933' post='2888804']
    Secondhand Squier VMJ (or maybe a £40 Harley Benton Deko Jazz, if one came up), a loud amp that works, and a lead to connect the two. Oh, and a strap.

    Jon.
    [/quote]

    I'd add a headstock clip tuner but that's about it for need. But what's the fun in need?

    Wal - Honestly, What's The Fuss?!?!?!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1445086932' post='2888713']


    Not showing up any more. Let me guess, it was the Great Wal of China. Hadrian's Wal would be next and then the comparatively lightweight Berlin Wal, although Jeff wasn't entirely happy with the neck profile and traded it in
    [/quote]

    I'm guessing it might be this beastie...

    How do you change your strings?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    All off at once, clean-oil-polish the fingerboard, relubricate all the bits the strings pass over and then restring from E up to G. Usually every 6 months or so - but then I'm not playing as much as I used to, don't punish the strings too much with my playing and have pretty dry hands when I'm playing so strings have always lasted pretty well for me. Been using Picato stainless steel rounds 45-105 recently which seem like very nice strings.

    Tone to die for!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='stevie' timestamp='1444984599' post='2887803']
    Is that a Wal? I thought it was a Stingray. Perhaps I should post the link on the 'I hate Wals' thread. :)
    [/quote]

    Yeah, he forsook his beloved Ricky's and Stingray for a short while used a Wal for a few years while he was playing with Elton...



    Heh heh heh... that would be naughty... You shouldn't tease!

    Luthier vs Factory/Mass Produced

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1444907806' post='2887165']

    It's about consistency and rarity. The OP doesn't seem to be particularly enamoured with Wals but that's what made the second hand values so high.
    [/quote]

    Well, that's the example I was thinking of but I didn't want to mention the "W" word... ;)

    Luthier vs Factory/Mass Produced

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='discreet' timestamp='1444904694' post='2887116']

    ...then you don't need anything other than a P or a J bass or their non-Fender equivalents... ...Anything more expensive or better-made is purely down to personal taste... isn't it?

    [/quote]

    Yup, as so often in such debates it comes down to the "needs"/"fancies" decision. For my car it's always been a "needs" decision. My basses have largely been in the "fancies" camp... :)

    Tone to die for!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='stevie' timestamp='1444857368' post='2886826']
    No, sorry, guys. These all pale into insignificance compared with this. I just wish I knew how to recreate it.

    http://youtu.be/porkY6I0LLc
    [/quote]

    Ah, the fabulous Davey Paton. One of my fave players. Recorded in his brief Wal using phase IIRC. GREAT LINE, AMAZING TONE!

    Luthier vs Factory/Mass Produced

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    It is just the way that markets work (and that is not always in a rational way). The market price for an item is just whatever the market will bear at any point in time.

    I was having a chat over a cuppa last week with a friend who is an auction appraiser. He's currently curating the auction of a very famous person's memorabilia collection. It was interesting to hear him talking about Ho sprites change over time. How, for instance, about 15-20 years ago Buddy Holly merchandise commanded huge premiums in auctions. The same items are currently worth half to two thirds what they were back then. The market has peaked, the buyers now aren't buying that stuff. On the other hand, Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious or other similar vintage gear is more sought after and now commands higher prices.

    A second hand Ritter or Carl Thompson or whatever boutique luthier built bass currently commands £XXXX on the second hand market. If any of those makers walked under a bus tomorrow the second hand market prices would sky rocket - there would have been no change in the quality of the basses available but the market would bear higher prices through a range of emotional and economic factors. They would be seen as rarities because no more would be made. They wouldn't be any better basses or have more intrinsic value. Look at what happened to Zemaitis instrument prices once he died...

    On average second hand basses achieve whatever the market decides they will achieve and that is rarely directly proportional to the type of factors which have been stated here as things which should count towards their value. Crazy, but that's markets for you.

    Working out bass parts by ear - any tips/methods?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='grandad' timestamp='1444839609' post='2886585']
    [url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_version"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_version[/url]

    Anyone ever tried to cover 4' 33"?
    [/quote]

    There is a wonderful urban myth (that turns out to be true) that on one of his post Wombles records Mike Batt left a slightly longer than usual runoff groove and called it One Minute Of Silence. He then got sued by John Cage's estate for infringement of copyright!

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-11964995

    Working out bass parts by ear - any tips/methods?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    [quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1444818174' post='2886281']


    I think audiences in general will have time for a band's or an individual's 'tasteful interpretations' of other people's songs when said band or individual is famous enough on their own strength. If I go to a pub knowing there's a covers band on, I hope to hear every song played well, that is, as close to the original as possible, allowing for differences in lineup, sound equipment and similar.
    Incidentally, going back to Joe Cocker's cover version, I far prefer the Beatles' original.
    [/quote]

    I get your point and kinda agree to a degree but I also think that you give most cover band audiences a little too much credit. I suspect that your expectation is rather atypical - and let's face it someone who hangs around on musical instrument forums and blogs about music is hardly a typical audience member. I count myself in that camp too, of course. Personally when I see a cover band (as opposed to a tribute band which is quite another thing entirely) I just want to see the songs well played with energy and skill. Slavish adherence to the recorded version isn't of my criteria.

    And that's not necessarily down to laziness. When I was playing in a covers/function band a couple of our most popular tunes bore little resemblance to the original but got some of the biggest response. They were Get It On and Hey Jude (which we often medleyed with Robbie Williams' Angels). The band's line up was one (sometimes two) guitars alternating between acoustic and electric depending on set and song, bass, drums and sax. Now, given that Hey Jude is a piano driven song our version was never going to come anywhere near the recorded version. It simply wasn't an option. However, towards the end of a night's music it was still the medley which got the whole dance floor filled with slightly/massively drunk audience with their arms around each other, waving beer glasses in the air and singing "Nah nah nah na-na-na nah...". Adherence to the original recording wasn't what the were thinking about. Similarly, Get It On rounded off our second set with a huge sax and electric guitar wig out and raised the rafters every single time.

    And we did Going Underground in a sufficiently different key (for vocals reasons) that I pretty much needed to write a whole new bassline which still gave a sufficiently sympathetic feel. No one ever complained we were playing it wrong and, in fact, we often got compliments on our arrangement or for nailing the song! Necessity being the mother of invention in that case and it was, to my ears quite different to the original.

    The average listener doesn't have the musical vocabulary to discern whether a song adheres to the recorded arrangement. However, the do react to what they perceive as sounding right in the circumstance - which is often a very different thing... More to do with confidence, energy, performance and communication.

    Tribute bands are a different thing, of course. There the job is to provide a slavish facsimile of the original recorded or live experience and that is how they are judged.

    Wal - Honestly, What's The Fuss?!?!?!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    You know, I wondered whether or not to weigh in to this discussion substantively but then I realised that from the tone of the OP comments that it's basically a futile waste of time. Imsuspect that there's unlikely to be any discourse or discussion.

    So my only substantive contribution... Each to their own, if you are as content in your Wal free world as I am on my Wal ridden one then we're both happy and content and long may it stay so.

    You don't like the look of Wals? Cool, aesthetics (and even ergonomics to a degree) are a personal thing. Never played a P bass, a Ricky, a 4 string Stingray or a Warwick neck that I liked the feel of in my hand. The oval bridges on Laklands just look silly and out of place to me. I don't like Gibson basses full stop for a load of reasons. My right, my prerogative and no reflection whatsoever on the tastes and preferences for those for whom those basses do tick all the boxes.

    So that's my only contribution but I suppose I will pop in from time to time to see how silly the thread has got... Au revior to this thread.

    Wah wah

    in Effects

    Posted

    Don't count it out. You'd be surprised how it can add a little something into the mix when used tastefully and sparingly. When I was playing in a covers band it got used on a couple of funky numbers, You Really Got Me by the Kinks and Get It On by T-Rex (which we used to finish with a bit of a wig out).

    Babicz bridges....true or false ???

    in Accessories and Misc

    Posted

    [quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1429286357' post='2750083']
    Nothing in the instrument makes a single bit of difference to the tone other than pickups and electronics.
    [/quote]

    I've read this comment a lot on forums and it really doesn't make sense to me from a physics and engineering point of view. A bass is a much more complex system than just a wire oscillating between two fixed points being picked up by a magnet and wire coil. The vibrations within the body are so much a part of the finer timbre of the bass. When the string vibrates those vibrations are also transmitted into the body at the bridge and nut. Those will then resonate through the body and influence the movement of all the strings by transmitting vibrations back into them through the nut and bridge.

    That won't change the fundamental sound of the string (basically down to the string and pickups/electronics) but it will certainly have a marked effect on the complex vibration patterns in the string. This will, therefore affect the timbre of the string. Now, the body vibrations will be affected by a whole range of factors - shape of body and neck, materials of the body and neck, the material and construction of the bridge and nut, the neck/body join etc etc etc... Hence the differences between different woods in a similar/identical bass design or switching from set to bolt-on to thru neck design. Some resonances will have a dampening effect others an additive effect so these things may affect other physical characteristics such as sustain etc.

    Now that may sound far fetched and trying to blind with science gobbledygook but don't under estimate the effects that these sympathetic vibrations and resonances can have on the complex vibrations of the string.

    Here's a subtle example. The housing of the clock mechanism isn't moving but one of the weights picks up the vibrations from the mechanism and the pendulum and starts to move in sympathy with it...

    http://youtu.be/_aILyKUm4IE

    Here's a rather more well known and dramatic example of sympathetic resonance gone bad... Ironically, it's in a bridge...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mclp9QmCGs

    So, will it change the fundamental of any note? Probably not but differences can and will affect the sound/timbre in noticable ways.

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